By John Stewart Why won’t Verizon Wireless make nice with Samsung Pay? With the U.S. debut of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s mobile-payments service just a few days away—and a national launch of Samsung Pay due Sept. 28—all the major mobile network operators have signed on to support the service with …

American Express Co. is offering new rewards and benefits for using one of its prepaid cards, but at a cost. The card brand and acquirer on Wednesday added a rewards program to its Serve card under the “Serve Cash Back” moniker. Serve Cash Back users, who pay $5.95 per month …

Issuers signing up to have their cards included in the Apple Pay wallet may benefit from all the hype Apple Inc. is generating for the new mobile-payment service. But behind the scenes, the 500 or so financial institutions that have enlisted in the program so far are also signing up …

By Jim Daly Among the many companies President Obama mentioned Friday as he announced that the federal government would be supporting Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chip-and-PIN card payments in a big way beginning next year was American Express Co. The president disclosed that AmEx was about to launch a $10 million program …

Despite the impending loss of consumer payment cards from mega-bank JPMorgan Chase & Co., MasterCard Inc. is winning new business from U.S. card issuers, its top executives said Thursday at the No. 2 payment card network’s first-quarter earnings call. U.S. credit card purchase volume grew 8.1% year-over-year to $138 billion …

American Express Co. deepened its prepaid card relationship with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. with Monday’s announcement that its Serve card will be sold in 4,100 U.S. Walmart-branded stores. The Walmart stores also will become part of Serve’s cash-reload network, boosting its location count to 19,500. Serve’s thus will become the biggest …

  Merchant Warehouse Inc. has bought gift and loyalty provider Opticard and has plans to offer its services as part of bundled transaction services to merchants. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Opticard, which will continue to operate independently, sells gift and loyalty card services to small businesses. Merchants can use Opticard programs to …

The U.S. Treasury Department this month began soliciting bids from banks to run its Direct Express prepaid card for Social Security recipients and other beneficiaries. The card program is currently run by Dallas-based Comerica Bank and has encountered political controversy in Washington. Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service is taking …

It’s best known for its Gift Card Mall displays of retailer gift cards and other prepaid cards in grocery stores, but prepaid card services provider Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. is a force in general-purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards. It had a GPR business even before 2010, when it launched its …

Noting the success Starbucks Corp. has had with its prepaid card and mobile app, Mercury Payment Systems LLC figures the small merchants it serves would like to create a similar program but lack Starbucks’s considerable resources. To bring such a program within reach, the Durango, Colo.-based merchant processor this week …